It’s been 23 years since followers had been launched to Malcolm D. Lee’s “Black Pack” in his 1999 debut movie, “The Best Man.” Now, the forged – together with Taye Diggs (Harper), Morris Chestnut (Lance), Nia Long (Jordan), Sanaa Lathan (Robin), Melissa De Sousa (Shelby), Terrence Howard (Quentin), and Regina Hall (Candace) – are bidding farewell to their cult-classic franchise with Peacock’s “The Best Man: The Final Chapters,” an eight-part restricted sequence that follows the school pal group of their older years as they navigate their evolving relationships and previous grievances.
“It’s a chance to embrace them, see a mirrored image of themselves, and have some nice nostalgia flowing.”
The backdrop of the present is, after all, Harper’s notorious novel “Unfinished Business,” which will get tailored right into a film within the sequence, offering the proper full-circle second to shut the guide on “The Best Man.” “‘Unfinished Business’ was a key a part of the ‘Best Man’ movie. It felt proper [to include] some 20-something years later if we’re revisiting and bringing this group and tales ahead for a sequence,” coshowrunner Dayna Lynne North tells POPSUGAR. “It’s a solution to join the previous to the current as a result of, for me, this isn’t a reboot, it is a ‘Where are they now?’ type of factor. So ‘Unfinished Business’ and Harper, nonetheless a supply of mess. The extra issues change, the extra they keep the identical.”
Fans have been ready for Peacock’s extremely anticipated sequence ever because it was first introduced in February 2021. Lee, the creator of the Best Man franchise, notes that the ultimate installment was initially alleged to be a 3rd and fourth movie however thought a restricted sequence was a lot better fitted to what audiences have been “clamoring” for.
“They actually really feel an affinity to them, so I really like that individuals nonetheless wish to see them and I nonetheless have one thing to say about these characters,” Lee says. “That’s uncommon. I believe [viewers] are going to understand this time, particularly across the holidays, to spend time with previous buddies that they met again in 1999. It’s a chance to embrace them, see a mirrored image of themselves, and have some nice nostalgia flowing.”
Image Source: Everett Collection
The “Best Man” forged credit score Lee’s genius writing as the rationale their franchise has lasted so lengthy. “It began on the web page,” De Sousa remarks. “He wrote an awesome script for the primary film, he wrote nice characters, and he picked the precise actors. It’s actually a kind of issues that you may’t clarify. It was magic. We would not have recognized from day one which it could’ve lasted all of those years.”
Hall provides, “I believe folks actually received invested in these characters they usually’ve grown up with us, in order that they’ve watched us undergo issues that they’ve gone by way of. The advantage of the franchise is that it is had sufficient time between every reincarnation for folks to expertise them at completely different phases of their lives.”
“We would not have recognized from day one which it could’ve lasted all of those years.”
The fervor of “The Best Man” has largely remained in followers’ hearts as a result of each member of the forged has been booked and busy since 1999. “One of the issues which have helped maintain the curiosity is if you take a look at the forged from the very first ‘Best Man,’ we have all continued to go on and accomplish that many different issues,” Chestnut explains. “Our fan bases from the opposite issues have continued to develop, so once we got here collectively for the second [movie], it introduced all of the followers again. They’ve seen all of the movies all through the years, so not solely have they adopted us within the motion pictures, they’ve adopted our careers on completely different paths, [too].”
All these years later, the forged discover consolation in realizing their franchise is iconic sufficient to final one other 20-plus years for the subsequent era to take pleasure in. Looking again at “The Best Man,” a few of them nonetheless chuckle at their favourite scenes from the movie. “My favourite one is my first Shelby scene the place you are launched to the character,” De Sousa shares. “Because I keep in mind on the premiere, that scene, the viewers burst into applause after my first scene: ‘I’m watching you, Harper.’ I am unable to ever repeat that, I do not understand how that occurred – a few of it was improv on my half – nevertheless it’s one among my favourite moments of my profession.”
Meanwhile, Chestnut, Long, and Hall notice that the latter could have had the very best scene of all of them. “We talked in regards to the stripper scene with Candace,” Chestnut quips with fun, whereas Long provides, “That was an extended evening. I used to be so pleased with Regina. I at all times consider her and the way this was one among her first roles and she or he got here in and simply owned that strip scene and I used to be in awe of her like, ‘Holy sh*t. I do not know if I may try this.'”
There are a lot extra beloved scenes the Best Man franchise has gifted us over time – from all the fellows lip-syncing New Edition’s “Can You Stand the Rain?” in “The Best Man Holiday” and Lance’s easy and attractive entrance within the first film to Jordan’s iconic “I do not wish to hear about no godd*mn peas” line (and her slap for Harper heard all over the world). Now, the hope is that “The Best Man: The Final Chapters,” now streaming on Peacock, will supply followers extra heat reminiscences.
Ahead, take a nostalgic look again at “The Best Man” forged’s careers and the place they’re in the present day.
